Italian Bishop Leads LGBT Jubilee Mass in Rome

Italian Bishop Leads Historic LGBT Pilgrimage Mass at Rome’s Church of the Gesù

By: Paul Goldberg, Senior Editor | JRL CHARTS – Religion

ROME — (September 7, 2025) — Bishop Francesco Savino, vice president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, presided over a landmark Mass for LGBT pilgrims on Saturday inside the historic Church of the Gesù as part of the Jubilee of Hope celebrations.

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The international pilgrimage was organized by an Italian lay association and drew more than 1,000 participants from around the world. The morning Mass at the Jesuits’ mother church was followed by an afternoon pilgrimage through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. Nearly 30 priests concelebrated, including American Jesuit Father James Martin, SJ, who met privately with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican earlier this month.

Rainbow-colored fans and shirts with the words “There is no fear in love” (1 John 4:18) filled the packed church as pilgrims sought both comfort from the heat and strength in shared faith.

In his homily, Bishop Savino stressed the dignity and value of every person, urging the Church to restore dignity where it has been denied.

“We are all a pilgrim people of hope and we want to leave this celebration more joyful and hopeful than ever,” he said. “We must go forward, convinced that God loves us with a unique and unrepeatable love … unconditional love.”

Savino reflected on the day’s Gospel, noting that St. Paul’s letters teach how even small steps in faith may be more pleasing to God than a life that appears correct but lacks struggle. He called on Church leaders to resist prejudice and ideology, urging them to embrace living truth over dead truth.

The service closed with emotional applause and hymns as a pilgrim carrying a rainbow-colored cross led Savino and his fellow priests out of the basilica.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds the faithful that people with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies … must be treated with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” while continuing to affirm the Church’s teaching that “homosexual acts … under no circumstances can be approved.”

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